Mrs. D.B. Lasan
CONFIDENTIAL
-3-
8th November, 1982
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
Conclusion
Complaint: detainees are sometimes not allowed to use the toilet, and therefore wet themselves:
The Investigation Unit has identified one girl who claims to have wished to use the toilet during a daily muster count. The staff maintain that no sense of urgency was communicated in the request, and hence the accident reported. While in a closed centre completely unrestricted access to bathroom facilities is not practicable, the specific incident referred to appears to have derived from a genuine misunderstanding.
Complaint: detainees are often struck or slapped by staff:
No medical or other corroborative evidence has been adduced to support this claim, which therefore remains unproven. But it may be that young girls in first detention may have misbehaved and provoked a few individual slaps from staff reluctant to implement formal disciplinary proceedings for minor matters which would be further complicated by the language difficulty. The Commissioner has reminded the staff that such behaviour would be unacceptable.
Complaint: Cantonese lessons last for only 10-15 minutes on any day:
The Unit has noted that provision is made for Cantonese sessions to last 40 minutes per day on alternate days. This provision is met. In practice few of the girls show any interest in the Cantonese lessons presented to them, most preferring to learn` English.
Complaint: two of the detainees misplaced their soap, and were compelled to eat soap by the staff:
The Investigation Unit has been able to obtain no medical or other corroborating evidence to support this charge.
5. As I trust the above findings indicate, no pattern of ill- treatment of detainees at Tai Tam Gap has emerged. What has, I believe, emerged, and in a way that may have appeared to suggest a pattern of ill-treatment, is first an inadequate understanding initially of the particular problems posed by adolescent female refugees detained in a closed centre and detained alongside other categories of detainees of the same age group; and secondly a failure of communication, because of very real language problems, between staff and Vietnamese detainees. There are a number of ways in which these failings are being tackled:
(a)
Greater care will be taken by the staff, when refugees first enter Tai Tam, to explain to them simply and clearly their rights and duties under the relevant
CONFIDENTIAL
/closed
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